Maybe you remember my Halloween quilt and how much my 2 year old loves those little Doodlebug for Riley Blake characters?
My sister-in-law is expecting the first baby girl in this generation so I'm hard at work making a baby quilt for her.
I'm using more Doodlebug fabric for this quilt from the Lovebugs collection. I purchased 2 "Rolie Polies" which are like mini Jelly Rolls. Each has 15 strips. This makes a very, very large baby quilt. I could have gotten by with just one.
I wanted something fast and easy so I'm doing a "Jelly Roll Race" style quilt for this one.
Here's the tutorial:
Prepare your fabric
- Cut the selvedge off each strip (about 1 inch off each narrow edge) and press flat (the strips usually come folded in half).
sew all your strips together
- Jumble up the strips, I threw them in the dryer for a minute.
- Sew all of the strips together, narrow end to narrow end, one after another, until you have a very, very long strip.
- Press each of those seams (open or to one side, your preference).
Fold in half and sew
- Fold the very, very long strip in half, right sides together. You should be folding it so it becomes half as long as it was.
- Sew along one long edge. When almost at the end, cut the very long strip in two and then finish sewing. Before you cut, you'll have a little loop at the end, gently pull the loop taut and cut with scissors.
fold in half again and sew
- Unfold along the edge you just sewed. Now you have a long strip (it's half the length of the original very, very long strip) that is 2 Jelly Roll strips wide and about 4 1/2" wide total.
- Fold your long strip in half so all the right sides are together. It's becoming half as long as it was. Each edge should have just two layers of fabric.
- Sew along a long edge with a 1/4" seam allowance. Stop a few inched before the end to cut into two and then finish sewing.
repeat, repeat, repeat
- Keep folding in half right sides together and sewing along a long edge until the first time your quilt top is longer than it is wide.
- Press all your seams (I pressed to one side).
- Sandwich with batting and backing, quilt, and bind.
finishing details on my quilt
I sandwiched my quilt with a throw sized batting (it was a tight fit) and white ostrich dot minky.
I quilted straight lines with my walking foot and hot pink Aurifil. I use the width of the walking foot as a guide (approximately half an inch) and quilt along each side of each seam. This works out to a straight line all the way across the width of the quilt approximately each inch.
Trim away any excess batting and backing material and bind. You're done!
